At least 32 Palestinians were killed in a wave of Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, according to local authorities, marking what residents described as the heaviest bombardment since the second phase of a ceasefire took effect earlier this month.
The Hamas-operated civil defence agency reported that children and women were among the dead, with one attack hitting a tent sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis. In Gaza City, officials at Shifa hospital said a strike on a residential apartment killed three children and two women.
“We found my three little nieces in the street. They say ‘ceasefire’ and all. What did those children do? What did we do?” said Samer al-Atbash, an uncle of the three dead children, according to Reuters.
The Israeli military confirmed carrying out strikes in response to what it called a Hamas violation of the ceasefire agreement on Friday. In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said it struck targets in various locations, including “four commanders and additional terrorists,” a weapons storage facility, a weapons manufacturing site, and “two launch sites belonging to Hamas in the central Gaza Strip.”
Hamas condemned the strikes, urging the U.S. to take immediate action and stating that “these ongoing violations” confirm Israel’s “brutal war of genocide against the strip.”
Egypt’s foreign ministry condemned the strikes and urged all parties to “exercise the utmost restraint.” Qatar, a key mediator in ceasefire talks, also denounced the “repeated Israeli violations.”
The strikes occurred as the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt is scheduled to reopen on Sunday, following the IDF’s recovery of the body of Israel’s last hostage earlier this week.
The war began after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s subsequent military campaign has killed more than 71,660 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which is widely cited by international bodies and media. The ministry says at least 509 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire began on October 10, 2025. Four Israeli soldiers have also been killed in that period.
